Members of Rock Band Massacred in Horrific Murder-Suicide in Brooklyn, New York

One of the most horrific rock stories in recent memory occurred early Monday morning (Nov. 11) in Brooklyn, N.Y. when members of a rock band were gunned down by an associate from another band, according to the New York Daily News.

The victims were in a band called the Yellow Dogs, an Iranian rock outfit who formed in Tehran in 2006 but were based in Brooklyn for a few years. According to police, the gunman walked into a building in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn with a .308 caliber rifle and killed two members of the Yellow Dogs, while also killing a friend of theirs and wounding another person. The gunman then went up to the roof as police surrounded the building and killed himself with a shot fired from the bottom of his chin.

The Yellow Dogs had been playing underground venues in Iran before obtaining visas to come to New York in 2010. The post-punk band had played the South by Southwest music festival and were named one of 50 bands to watch by Spin magazine.

The deceased members of the Yellow Dogs are guitarist Sourosh Farazmand and drummer Arash Farazmand, while their friend, musician and author Ali Eskandarian, was also slain. The New York Post has identified the gunman as Raefe Ahkbar, who originally was referred to as a former bandmate in early news reports, but was actually in another Iranian band that was associated with the Yellow Dogs.

Upon hearing about the murders, a neighbor told the Daily News, “They seem like really nice guys. They didn’t seem to be in anyway to be violent guys. They weren’t rabble rousers or anything like that.” Another neighbor reported hearing 45 shots in total.

We would like to send out our condolences to the families and friends of the musicians who were slain in this horrific incident.

Note: The above story was updated after this statement was sent out by the band’s publicist:

The shooter was not a former member of the band The Yellow Dogs, he was in another band from Iran and the two groups were acquaintances in the past. A personal conflict between the guys resulted in the dissolution of their relationship in 2012. The shooting resulted in the death of two of the members of the Yellow Dogs, Sourosh Farazmand (guitarist) and Arash Farazmand (drummer), along with a friend of theirs, fellow musician and author Ali Eskandarian. The shooter died from a self inflicted bullet wound on site.

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